I then get the little "waiting" icon ( hourglass ), then nothing. The volume controls do not appear on my desktop. I wait a bit then hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to see what is happening in the background. There I see " Sndvol32 " in that pop-up menu, like it is active and running.

When I try to run a voice progam ( for gaming ) it says " Failed to open the microphone input drvice. Another copy of the program might be running and has the microphone input device aliready open".

So where is my volume controls? Why can't I see them? What may be using my mic that I can't see?

Compnovice
Welcome to TSG!
I only have a few minutes before I leave for work but try these suggestions.....

Go to Start\Find and type in *.cpl then hit enter. Look through list presented and locate the MMSYS.CPL and double left click it. Does the Multimedia control panel open? or does it just hang as before?

If it opens then you may have defective shortcut you were using.

If not then the MMSYS.CPL itself may be corrupt.

If it is suspected corrupt then you will have to use the SFC extract file command from the start\run line to extract another copy of MMSYS.CPL off you Win98 install CD.

Ok, I have done that and the simple "volume-slide" menu poped up.
I should have been more specific. I would like to see the advanced properties menu, the one with the mic, balance, line in, ect controls.

I think I may have gotten it with your help.
First I restarted my computer so that all the startup program loaded.
I then right-clicked on the volume ctrl. from the taskbar and hit "open vol. ctrls.".
This brought up the menu Iwas looking for! I will now try the other voice program to see if I have a conflict.